Fourteen companies in joint ventures have submitted pre-qualification bids for the construction of the city’s first underground Metro rail from Colaba to Seepz via Bandra, billed as one of the most expensive infrastructure projects of the city.

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The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will now evaluate the proposals and prepare a shortlist of companies based on their experience and eligibility. Thereafter, the development authority will float requests for proposals for the actual construction.

“We will take 90 days to evaluate bids and shortlist eligible companies. Positive net worth calculated as the difference between total assets and total liabilities for the past five years and average annual construction turnover of not less than $175 million for the past five years were two of the main qualification criteria,” MMRDA spokesperson Dilip Kawathkar said.

The development authority had last month decided to dilute eligibility norms on the request of many potential bidders so as to widen the competition for the project.

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The MMRDA had invited pre-qualification bids for the 33.5-km Metro line, estimated to cost Rs 23,126 crore, in September last year and was hoping to invite financial bids by the end of last year. However, the last date for submission of bids was extended on five occasions to ultimately March 10.

The list of companies having evinced interest in the project includes known construction contractors such as Hindustan Construction Company, Larsen & Toubro, Unity Infrastructure, Gammon and so on. The joint ventures also include companies from countries such as Russia, Spain, Austria, Korea and China. However, Reliance Infrastructure, which is the lead stakeholder of the special purpose vehicle construction the city’s first Metro, has stayed away from the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro project.

While a Reliance Infrastructure spokesperson declined comment, a source said the company was not interested in the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro as it has been planned as a cash contract unlike the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro, which is being built on a public-private partnership model.

The Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro, which will have 26 stations, will be constructed in seven contract packages. The MMRDA will deploy tunnel boring machines for the underground Metro instead of resorting to the traditional drilling or blasting method so as to cause minimum disturbance to the surrounding area.